Great Work! Beautiful pictures and i love the way you designed your guide as well. Unfortunately, i've been using thermal compound and cleaning materials for over 3 years now on my processors, video card's core, and chipset. So this is just a review for me really, thanks!

It can and it can't... With a mirror finish, it usually means you have lapped the heatsink very well and it's very flat. So it's extremly easy to put too much thermal paste on. It has it's advantages and disadvantages. Try checking the lapping article out.

Its worth noting a HS lapped to a near mirror \ mirror finish is far superior to one that isnt. Depending on the HS, probably on average a good 5c superior. As I said though, depending on the HS, and what materials are used and how high quality the materials are used on the HS.

holy crap, spent a week and $50 gas trying to find some 99% isopropryl, then while picking up some rubbing alchohol at the store, I see a rack of 99%, and they told me that they can order 100% if i need it that bad.... I feel like such a jackass.